The Unabsent Father
by Old Emerald Eye
Summary: A solution to the dilemma posed by the disappearance of one Maxwell Lord. Jeremiah Danvers has not been entire absent from his daughter's lives. Written for International Fanworks Day 2018.


It is an unfortunate fact that Jeremiah Danvers may be in the employ of a secret organisation, one that is secret from the first organisation he belonged to, and this may employment require him to remain dead in the eyes of everyone not in said organisation, including his daughter. Daughters. It does not, however, stop him from evaluating Alex's suitors. He doesn't have to worry about Kara. Kara is fine. She remains cheerfully oblivious to any and all attention, and Alex takes care of the remainder who ignore the hint. By the time anyone has survived long enough to be noticed, he's comfortably aware that they've been vetted back to their great grandparent's favourite pie flavours.

For most of the time, this does not seem to be much of a taxing occupation, and he can focus most of his energy on actual work, the kind that keeps a roof over his head and a bullet _out_ of it, not that Luthor would ever actually allow that to happen. He thinks. He is, at the very least, fairly certain she wouldn't.

Alex spends her time with Kara ( and eating a worrying amount of takeout while she's at it, even taking Kara into account, but he's hard pressed to think of an alternate way to supply the calories needed on their budget,) giving him heart palpitations on that bike of hers, or holed up at work. The times she spends not holed up while working are even more deadly on his blood pressure, because _of course_ Alex sticking to a nice safe desk job wasn't an option. She wouldn't pick a nice safe hobby like, say, _explosive chess_ , why would her job be any different?

And then Maxwell Lord appears on the scene.

Lord raises several flags, even before she's assigned to work with him. He's rich, talented, with a not very well hidden vendetta against Supergirl and a casual disregard for human life, and it's only his ego and the corresponding security risk – to say nothing of the fact that his tech has already been infiltrated, during the Myriad incident – that prevents him from being openly approached.

Things change when he begins to actually interact with Alex. Slimebag CEOs are a dine a dozen, millionaires even more so, but most of them have the decency to leave his family alone. When he forces her to attend that _farce_ of a date? Well. All things considered, she's been on worse dates, and has done worse – surfing, _again_ , was bad enough - to extract information. But when he bugs her? Threatens Kara? Attempts to coerce her company? Well, there is a line in the hearts of men, and Lord knows he crossed it. Jeremiah is nothing if not resourceful, and he has so _many_ resources to work with. Some of them are even terrestrial in origin. Some of them might even be considered lethal.

Luthor finds him in the lab, putting the finishing touches on his masterpiece. He's been working overtime, a _lot_ of overtime, but she's seen nothing to account for it. Escape attempts, however unlikely, are something she prefers to keep on top of. Things can get so messy in their line of work without adding desertion to the mix.

"This has no useful applications, Dr Danvers."

Jeremiah doesn't look up from his soldering. The sound of her heels are distinctive enough that there is no danger of him accidentally attaching his hand to the workbench when she appears from the shadows like a well turned out, six foot tall bat.

"Not on aliens, it doesn't, no."

"Then who – ah. Maxwell Lord. Yes, he has taken rather an interest in your daughter of late, hasn't he?"

He keeps working rather than say something that might adversely affect their working relationship. Stops when she lays her hand in the path of his soldering iron. Burning her would be counterproductive, even if some days a little pyromania would go a long way. Shooting things just isn't the same.

"He _is_ still useful to us."

 _Only thing he's useful for is –_ Jeremiah bites his tongue, swallows his protest with familiarity born of long practice. Breathes out. Arguing the same point without some new angle will get him nowhere, except maybe another round of rehabilitation.

"And when he isn't?"

The smile Lillian is wearing isn't so much a smile as ice, sharp and sheer enough that to see it is to notice too late. There are other applicable metaphors. Jeremiah's overheard Security say something along the lines of noticing the smile means you've missed the scalpel she's just finished dissecting you with. Trouble, in other words, but Security has so little to do that they'll use twenty words when one will do. Either way, it's not directed at him.

"Well, I don't see how Cadmus can be held accountable for any and all accidents that occur in our vicinity, now can we?"

There are times he thinks he might actually like Luthor. Some form of affection, anyway. She'll give him reason to change his mind soon enough, but it's an odd feeling while it lasts.


End file.
